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"The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people."
Cesar Chavez

:: Friday, September 09, 2005 ::

Workers stand to get burned in solar panel flap - Modesto Bee, CASo far, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has sided with the powerful electricians union and against carpenters and laborers, who want SB1 passed without any entangling mandates. Here's what Daniel Curtin, director of the California Conference of Carpenters, had to say in a letter sent to lawmakers last week: 'Requiring prevailing wages on any non-public use of (solar funds) is not a protection of prevailing wages, it is an improper use of government regulatory power that expands prevailing wage into the private sector construction market place. This is a major public policy shift with tremendous ramifications that go far beyond SB 1.'

In addition, Curtin blasted the requirement that only electricians should be allowed to install the panels. (Some electricians, after all, haven't been up on a roof for years.) 'Many crafts can and are used for the installation of these systems; certified electricians are not the exclusive craft required.'